The Cooking Princess - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Princess Who Cooks

Episode 20

From Eshir’s perspective, it was an utterly absurd situation where Chloe had been butchering fish and suddenly brought up swordsmanship.

Chloe continued speaking, paying no mind to Eshir’s incredulous questioning.

“Look at that, look. There’s so much meat still stuck to the skin, but I threw it all away because I’m not skilled with a knife. Such a waste.”

Indeed, as Chloe said, quite a lot of meat was being wasted. But swordsmanship wasn’t something that could be learned easily.

To begin with, swordsmanship for harming or protecting people and knife skills for preparing fish had completely different purposes!

At the idea of learning swordsmanship solely to properly eat fish, Eshir felt his head throb.

No matter how you looked at it, it was like the tail wagging the dog.

“What kind of lunatic learns swordsmanship to slice monster meat? Are you really out of your mind?”

However, even at Eshir’s harsh tone, Chloe didn’t back down.

“Ah, why not? If I learn swordsmanship, I can protect myself too, and everything will be good anyway.”

At that unreasonable tantrum, Eshir snorted and informed Chloe of a universal fact.

“The Count being a knight and your talent are completely separate things, you know?”

Children don’t necessarily inherit their parents’ talents. That was true.

If Chloe had taken after the Duchess, she would have been so frail that even holding a sword would be difficult.

But Chloe was making her own gamble.

‘The original me was so stupid, but I don’t even have this much talent?’

No.

If there was a god, they would have given at least one talent to Chloe, the foolish villainess. Please, it had to be so.

Fortunately, her father had even received a knight’s title.

So perhaps the reason Chloe was so foolish in the original story was because she wasn’t using her body suited for physical aptitude, but trying to use her head instead.

Thinking this way, Chloe couldn’t hide her indignation as she fumed alone.

“Just wait and see.”

She would master swordsmanship no matter what.

Master it and use her power to catch delicious… no wait! Powerful monsters to stabilize the Northernmost Domain of the Garnet County.

The young princess finally received permission from her father to train in swordsmanship.

Everyone in the Garnet Family speculated that Chloe wouldn’t last long and would quit swordsmanship. They whispered that the Count was simply allowing his daughter’s temporary rebellion.

However, she broke everyone’s expectations and diligently practiced swordsmanship.

Though she only did basic training now without a proper teacher, even Eshir could see that Chloe’s progress was rapid.

Watching Chloe consistently hold and swing a sword for a full month, Eshir finally acknowledged it.

This was how successful people behaved.

With bold goal-setting followed by not shying away from arduous effort to achieve it, Chloe was clearly talented enough for anyone to see she would succeed, and she even had high status and wealth.

A life that anyone could see would be successful, and already was successful.

However, separate from that, Eshir couldn’t stop sighing.

“What kind of lunatic trains in swordsmanship to cook monsters… Really, the things you do.”

Even while saying this, Eshir carefully checked whether Chloe had been injured during training.

‘Fortunately, no injuries.’

Regardless of what he thought, the seemingly immature red-haired young princess answered spiritedly.

“All that monster meat we worked so hard to catch gets thrown away. It’s wasteful, so I have to work hard!”

“Why is a princess with plenty of money thinking about cost-effectiveness?”

Now he decided to be grateful that Princess Chloe hadn’t suddenly set out to hunt monsters herself.

‘Right. It’s better that she’s just obsessing over slicing sashimi rather than making a fuss about hunting directly.’

…Eshir didn’t yet know of the not-so-distant future when Chloe would make a fuss about hunting monsters with a sword in hand.

***

Chloe really, very, diligently trained in swordsmanship.

The knights of the Garnet Family also helped with Chloe’s training, and the Count occasionally provided direct instruction despite his busy schedule.

For a while, days of staying secluded in the Garnet Estate, repeating recipe development and sword training, continued.

But not long after Chloe’s seclusion, contact came from the Imperial Palace.

‘I’m getting sick of just seeing the imperial seal at this point.’

Seeing that the seal belonged to the Empress, it seemed likely she would do something strange again like last time. Chloe’s expression naturally became sour from her assumptions.

“Oh my. The Empress has sent you another letter.”

“The Imperial Palace must have been the first to recognize our daughter’s remarkable talent.”

Under her parents’ enthusiastic expectations, Chloe tried to hide her sour expression and barely managed to smile as she opened the letter.

The contents were nothing special.

She had heard that Chloe was recently devoted to sword training,

and since Claude, Duke who was around Chloe’s age, had considerable knowledge of swordsmanship, she would send him to the Garnet Family to provide instruction.

From the nuance, it seemed she already knew that Chloe didn’t have a proper swordsmanship teacher yet.

‘No, why is she so interested in me?’

“My goodness. Our daughter isn’t going to the ducal house, but the Duke is coming to our manor?”

As the Duchess was surprised, this was indeed an exceptional proposal.

The problem was having no right to refuse, and Claude only had a future of ruin by the male protagonist Shuel ahead of him, which was really a big problem.

Anyway, the Empress personally sending her son to the Garnet Family was such an exceptional favor. Since Claude was born as the Emperor’s illegitimate child and received the title of Duke early, the Garnet Family couldn’t order him around.

Thinking it was so exceptional that she might be the one to get wrecked, Chloe tried hard to manage her expression.

‘Now she’s not even bothering to hide that she’s trying to match me with her son.’

Indeed, it seemed Chloe’s parents had also read the intention behind this letter.

“Seeing how she’s making such a good proposal, it seems the Empress thinks quite specially of you.”

“Haha. Yes. That’s right.”

Chloe smiled lifelessly and stared holes through the letter before thinking.

What benefit could possibly come from pairing the original villainess with the original villainous sub-character?

Did she mean to fail more spectacularly since they were going to fail anyway?

The bombshell didn’t end there.

The very next day after receiving the letter, Chloe was informed at 6 AM that a guest had arrived.

“What kind of guest could it possibly be.”

While drowsy and half-asleep, the maid’s trembling voice reached Chloe’s ears all too clearly.

“D-D-D-D-Duke has arrived!”

Upon hearing those words, Chloe experienced becoming completely awake.

“Wait. What did you say?”

“Duke is waiting. He says he has an appointment with you, and he’s currently in the Reception Room.”

At the maid’s words, Chloe pressed her throbbing forehead and thought.

‘No. Normally wouldn’t you discuss dates and come later? Am I the strange one here?’

Even while thinking this, Chloe dressed as quickly as possible in clothing that wouldn’t be improper and set out to receive Claude from the crack of dawn.

Then the Count and Duchess, having heard the news, came first.

“Goodness, I don’t know what kind of rudeness this is. No matter if he’s a Duke, to visit so suddenly at such an early hour!”

The Duchess was rarely angry. Her brow was deeply furrowed, perhaps sensitive from being woken up.

The Count’s expression was equally poor.

“Chloe, you don’t need to come out. We’ll deal with the Duke and send him away, so go back to sleep.”

Even in her drowsy state, Chloe quickly came to her senses.

While Claude was indeed being very rude, the person who sent him was still the Empress.

If the Count and Duchess sent him away like this, Claude would certainly be hurt in his pride and never come again.

Then the Empress might find fault, saying her son wasn’t properly received at the Garnet Manor.

‘Of course, whatever the Empress says wouldn’t matter to the Garnet Family.’

Though the Empress controlled high society, she didn’t have the ability to directly attack the Garnet Family.

The Count was both a nobleman with political power and a knight with military force.

But Chloe was different.

If relations with Claude and the Empress became completely strained like this, they would torment Chloe in areas where the Count and Duchess couldn’t protect her.

And she wanted to resolve her own matters herself.

The Empress taking notice of her and Claude’s visit both originated from what Chloe had done.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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